The Misadventures of a Wordsmith column
by Georgia L. Jones
The Misadventures of a Wordsmith
“The Misadventure of a Wordsmith” will primarily be about my writing and the unusual things that happen along my journey. For my first article, I wanted to take the opportunity to introduce myself and give you an idea of who I am and what I write. My writing career has been a lifelong process and whereas I call it a career, it actually has been more of a life support system for me. So the best way to start is from the beginning…
As soon as I began reading, I knew that I wanted to write. I always enjoyed the images that my mind conjured up as I read books. I loved the pictures that it painted in my mind of other worlds, places magically fantastic as well as real, places that I wanted to visit…if only through the ink on pages that I could turn with anticipation. I wanted to create my own worlds. In short, from a very young age, I knew that my destiny was to become a wordsmith.
Everything I’ve ever seen has been a story to me in one way or another. I learned early to turn my real life experiences into fantasy. Everywhere I looked I could see the stories unfold. Teachers turned into fire breathing dragons, friends turned into allies in great wars, the things around me turned into strategically placed obstacles in lands that don’t exist. While writing, I’ve always transformed the world around me and that has allowed me a different view of the most mundane places I’ve been.
Writing has also been a great way for me to find solace in the stress of life. I believe it’s the way I cope with everything. The happy times and the sad times can all find a place on the pages of the things that I write. It is as if everything that I’ve experienced comes through, as cryptically as it may be, in my stories.
As long as I can remember I’ve written…it wasn’t until about 10 years ago that I gained any kind of control over what I wrote. For so very long…I just wrote. Whatever came out, is what came out. I didn’t plot stories, words just flowed through me with no real format or direction. I’ve considered it therapy most of my life and only used it as such. Some of my stories have been very short…one was even written on a paper plate at a family reunion, my sister probably still has it stashed in a box somewhere…some have been very long, none of those stories were ever written for publication, they were simply written to ease something that was building inside of me, something that needed to be released. Whether they were sci-fi, comedy, fantasy, or horror, they all had a purpose and a place in my life, and later…well most of them had a place in a campfire when no one was looking. Very few of them made it through to the now in my life.
I’ve always been a very private writer, as I think is fairly common. I’ve certainly thrown away more stories than I will ever publish. I enjoy the act of writing itself. It feels as if I’m creating art with the curve of each letter as my pen glides across paper to craft each word.
Most of my life has revolved around writing in some way. My dream has always been to be a published author…with the exception of the year, somewhere between 12 and 13 when I really wanted to be a Rock Star…my dream became reality on March 17, 2012 when my first novel, Legends of Darkness, was released. I’ve since released the second book in the Remnants of Life Series, Witches, and I’ve been published in several anthology’s. I’m currently working on nine different projects. Most of what I’ve written and am working on is fantasy with a twist of horror, however, I love political humor and have written a short book under the pen name of Smarty McSmartypants, and am currently working on a non fiction book which takes a closer look inside our current model of social services system.
The people that make writing possible for me are the ones closest to me. They are the ones that put up with me sitting at the computer typing, carrying bags with books filled with research and writing material, or just staring off into space while imagining a world differently than it really it. They are also the ones that inspire me and keep me pushing forward.
Thank you for taking the time to visit my column and I hope you visit again!